Best of the Web:


Propaganda

Best of the Web: Claims about MH17 Western MSM fails to question


RT
Tue, 22 Jul 2014 20:12 UTC
MH17 protest
© AFP Photo / Manan VatsyayanaMalaysian activists hold placards and shout slogans during a protest outside the Ukraine embassy in Kuala Lumpur on July 22, 2014
Before any investigation into the MH17 crash even started, Western politicians and the media were quick to pin the blame for the tragedy on Russia. The parts of the story that do not support the theory seem to have been simply disregarded.

A UN Security Council resolution, unanimously adopted on Monday, urges a "full, thorough and independent international investigation" into the MH17 crash.

But for some it's already clear who is to blame.

"...this is a direct result of Russia destabilizing a sovereign state, violating its territorial integrity, backing thuggish militias and training and arming them," British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote.

"What's happening is really grotesque and it is contrary to everything President Putin and Russia said they would do," US Secretary of State John Kerry said on NBC television.

"Russian-controlled territory, Russian-backed rebels, quite likely a Russian-supplied weapon - Russia can't wash its hands of this," Australian PM Tony Abbott believes.

Western mass media, so sure of the Kremlin's hand in whatever bad things happen in Ukraine, has lately switched from calling anti-government forces in the east of the country pro-Russian to plainly Russian separatists.
Read More...
USA

Best of the Web: Government agents 'directly involved' in almost all high-profile U.S. terror plots


UK Guardian
Mon, 21 Jul 2014 15:17 UTC
Image
Nearly all of the highest-profile domestic terrorism plots in the United States since 9/11 featured the "direct involvement" of government agents or informants, a new report says.

Some of the controversial "sting" operations "were proposed or led by informants", bordering on entrapment by law enforcement. Yet the courtroom obstacles to proving entrapment are significant, one of the reasons the stings persist.

The lengthy report, released on Monday by Human Rights Watch, raises questions about the US criminal justice system's ability to respect civil rights and due process in post-9/11 terrorism cases. It portrays a system that features not just the sting operations but secret evidence, anonymous juries, extensive pretrial detentions and convictions significantly removed from actual plots.

"In some cases the FBI may have created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals by suggesting the idea of taking terrorist action or encouraging the target to act," the report alleges.

Comment: There is a clear motivate here, between the lines. The authorities wish to project the 'reality' of a 'terror threat' to keep the people afraid and justify military invasions overseas to accrue more wealth to themselves. It does not require a large leap of logic to see how the same authorities would, on occasion, not only manufacture 'terror plots' but also carry out real terror attacks themselves in the name of the patsies.


See also Sott.net's The SOTT Report on this topic for more details.

Read More...
Eye 1

Best of the Web: Bernaysian manipulation of the human psyche

Steven Macmillon
The Analyst Report
Sat, 19 Jul 2014 18:20 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock, Johan Swanepoel
Edward Bernays was the master of influencing and shaping public opinion who developed upon the ideas of earlier social psychologists and the work of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, in order to create techniques to manipulate the subconscious desires of the masses.

Throughout his 103-year lifespan, the "father of public relations" was at the pinnacle of his field advising US Presidents Coolidge, Eisenhower, Hoover and Wilson, as well as inventor Thomas Edison, US industrialist Henry Ford and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. He also reportedly refused invitations by Hitler and Franco to work on fascist propaganda campaigns in Europe.

At the end of World War 1 Bernays served as a propagandist for America before going on to work with various government departments and corporations throughout his lifetime, including: the US Department of State, CBS, Procter and Gamble, and the American Tobacco Company, as well as designing the propaganda campaign for the United Fruit Company which led to the CIA coup against the Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz in 1954.

Comment: For a more in depth look at the 'Bernays thesis that humans are "rarely aware" of the true motivations and desires powering their actions...' Watch this excellent 4 part series called the "The Power of Nightmares/ The Century of Self"

Read More...
Question

Best of the Web: MH17: Putin's missile? Nope

Pepe Escobar
RT
Sat, 19 Jul 2014 15:41 UTC
Putin
© AFP Photo / Alexei NikolskyRussia's President Vladimir Putin.
Here's the spin war verdict: the current Malaysian Airlines tragedy - the second in four months - is "terrorism" perpetrated by "pro-Russian separatists" armed by Russia and Putin is the main culprit. End of story. Anyone who believes otherwise, shut up.

Why? Because the CIA said so. Because Hillary 'We came, we saw, he died' Clinton said so. Because crazy Samantha 'R2P' Power said so - thundering at the UN, everything duly printed by the neo-con infested Washington Post.

Because Anglo-American corporate media - from CNN to Fox (who tried to buy Time Warner, which owns CNN) - said so. Because the President of the United States (POTUS) said so. And mostly because Kiev had vociferously said so in the first place.
Read More...
Question

Best of the Web: 10 questions the Russians have for Ukraine after crash of MH17


RT
Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:04 UTC
Image
Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov
Some Western states and Kiev rushed to find Russian involvement in the MH17 crash having no evidence to back their claims, Russia's Deputy Defense Minister told RT. He invited Ukraine to answer 10 questions to prove their commitment to an impartial probe.

Speaking to RT, Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov has criticized Western countries for jumping to conclusions just "24 hours after the crash" while there is no evidence.

"They try to show to the whole world that we are responsible for the crash. It is very strange that without any evidence my colleagues from western media would like to find somebody who is responsible for the crash," Antonov said. "It seems to me that this is part of information warfare which has been started against the Russian Federation and armed forces."

Instead of using the incident as the pretext for groundlessly blaming one of the sides, the catastrophe over Ukrainian sky should be used as a possibility to restart cooperation to "prevent such tragedies in the future."
Read More...
Airplane

Best of the Web: Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 downed over warzone Ukraine. Who was behind it? Cui Bono?

Tony Cartalucci
Global Research
Thu, 17 Jul 2014 17:03 UTC
MAS B777
© Global ResearchYet another Malaysia Boeing 777 is lost under extraordinary circumstances this year.
Flying over warzone Ukraine, The probable and Convenient Happens

At no juncture during the Ukrainian crisis could the downing of Malaysian Boeing 777 flight MH17 have been more convenient for NATO and its proxy regime in Kiev.

Kiev's forces were being picked apart in eastern Ukraine with several units encircled and destroyed. In the west of the country, dissent was growing by Ukrainians unwilling to march off to fight in the east. NATO's attempts to bait Russia into moving into Ukrainian territory and shift global opinion against Moscow had repeatedly failed.

The final card to be played by the US was another round of sanctions that almost immediately was ridiculed as ineffective and impotent. Even US corporate-financier interests condemned the latest round of sanctions claiming they were "unilateral" in nature and thus limited US enterprise from interacting with Russia while leaving European competitors free to move into the void. An effective US policy of confronting, containing, and undermining Russia would require multilateral sanctions with almost universal support - but the impetus for such sweeping sanctions did not exist - until now.

The US FAA Declared Ukrainian Airspace Off-Limits 3 Months Ago

Indeed, the stars have aligned for NATO. While the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declared Ukrainian airspace off limits to all aircraft under its jurisdiction, it appears other airlines continued flying over what has been a warzone for months. The Atlantic in a report titled, "The FAA's Notice Prohibiting Airline Flights Over Ukraine," stated clearly that:
Did aviation authorities know that this was a dangerous area?
Yes, they most certainly did. Nearly three months ago, on the "Special Rules" section of its site, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration put out an order prohibiting American pilots, airlines, charter carriers, and everyone else over whom the FAA has direct jurisdiction, from flying over parts of Ukraine.
Read More...
Gold Seal

Best of the Web: The return of George Orwell and Big Brother's war on Palestine, Ukraine and the truth

John Pilger
Independent Australia
Fri, 11 Jul 2014 04:19 UTC
Image
The other night, I saw George Orwells's Nineteen Eighty-Four performed on the London stage.

Although crying out for a contemporary interpretation, Orwell's warning about the future was presented as a period piece - remote, unthreatening, almost reassuring. It was as if Edward Snowden had revealed nothing, Big Brother was not now a digital eavesdropper and Orwell himself had never said:
'... to be corrupted by totalitarianism, one does not have to live in a totalitarian country.'
Acclaimed by critics, the skilful production was a measure of our cultural and political times. When the lights came up, people were already on their way out. They seemed unmoved, or perhaps other distractions beckoned.

"What a mindfuck," said a young woman, lighting up her phone.

As advanced societies are de-politicised, the changes are both subtle and spectacular.

In everyday discourse, political language is turned on its head, as Orwell prophesised in 1984. 'Democracy' is now a rhetorical device. Peace is 'perpetual war'. 'Global' is imperial. The once hopeful concept of 'reform' now means regression, even destruction. 'Austerity' is the imposition of extreme capitalism on the poor and the gift of socialism for the rich - an ingenious system under which the majority service the debts of the few.
Read More...
Star of David

Best of the Web: Latest Gaza bombardment: What you're not being told


SCG News
Tue, 15 Jul 2014 17:55 UTC
Image
The corporate media isn't just distorting the facts on the Gaza assault, they're flat out covering them up.

On July 7, 2014 Israel began a massive assault on the Gaza strip of Palestine. In the first week alone Israel dropped over 400 tons of bombs, killing over 130 Palestinians. Most were civilians, about half of them were women and children. By the time you are watching the the number will be higher.

Israel's official justification for this wholesale slaughter: the murder of three Israeli teenagers which Israel blames on Hamas. That's not the real reason. First of all Israel has not produced one single piece of evidence implicating Hamas or even a Palestinian in the murders, and in fact the the evidence we do have indicates that that murderers were Israeli. You see on Tuesday July 1st, The Jerusalem Post released the audio of the kidnapped teen's distress call to police, and in that call the kidnappers can be heard telling the boys to put their heads down in HEBREW. According to the Jerusalem Post prior to being leaked to the public this audio was being held under a gag order by the Israeli government.


Comment: Normal people tend to read into the intentions - or what they think are the intentions - of psychopaths in the hope of making coherent sense out of their insanity.

Doing this for gas, while outrageous, at least makes sense.

Thing is though, as Israeli author Miko Peled explained in last week's SOTT Talk Radio show, Israel already effectively owns whatever resources are in or near the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It has been diverting Palestinians' water since forever. It has long considered the whole of Palestine to be Israeli-owned. The Palestinian government doesn't even control its own financial budget, making it more impotent than city councils in Israel proper. So Israel is not doing this with a view to 'securing gas fields off Gaza', although it may play a role.

The issue isn't the gas.

The issue is the people.

Palestinians' very existence is a problem for Israel. They must be eliminated.

Problem is, 'those normal people' keep making such a fuss about it.

As Joe Quinn explained recently:
As clinical studies on the psychopathic mind make clear, psychopaths periodically experience a compelling drive to give vent to their destructive instincts. In the case of psychopaths in positions of power, this usually means some kind of 'war' where innocent civilians (aka 'non-combatants') are targeted for the most brutal suffering. In the specific case of the Israeli psychopathic 'elite', the psychological profile goes something like this:

Netanyahu and his ilk have a deep, almost unconscious desire to obliterate the Palestinians, to 'erase them from the pages of history', because the Palestinians stand in the way of them achieving their goal of a idealized Jewish state where they reign supreme. The Israeli/Zionist ideologues are frequently and privately enraged at the Palestinians because the Palestinians force the Zionists to struggle to find a way to achieve their racist goals without tarnishing their own self-image as 'seeking peace' 'defending the Jewish people' being 'the only Democracy in the Middle East' etc. To the psychopaths in Israel therefore, all Palestinians are 'evil', but there's a problem: the Palestinians are not evil and their cause is just by normal human standards.

If it was up to them, the psychopaths in Israel would just kill all the Palestinians and be done with it. But they can't because they are constrained by human rights, innocence, respect and other 'silly' ideals adhered to by normal people, and to which the psychopaths must also pay lip service if they are to maintain their mask of humanity on the world stage.

To get what they want therefore, the Israeli psychopaths must solve the problem of the Palestinians not conforming (in reality) to the evil image the Israelis have of them, that would allow the Israelis to freely express their destructive urges and achieve their idealized vision of a Jewish state. The solution that psychopathic types everywhere invariably come up with is to 'create their own reality' where they literally manufacture a 'reality' to fit the demonized image they have of the 'enemy' that stands in their way. At that point, they have the 'just cause' to attack the 'enemy' whose mere existence has been 'unfairly' thwarting their attempts to get what they want i.e. achieve their psychopathic agenda.


Read More...
Eye 1

Best of the Web: I am confused, can anyone help me? Part II: West's double standards and hypocrisy

Neil Clark
RT.com
Tue, 15 Jul 2014 05:38 UTC
obama tyranny
I'm confused. Jen Psaki, US State Department spokesperson, says that the Ukrainian government has 'every right' to use air strikes against its opponents in Ukraine on the grounds that it 'is defending the country'.

Yet in 2011, alleged air strikes by Libyan government forces against its opponents were used as a reason for the imposition of a 'no-fly zone' which was followed by a NATO-led military intervention against Libya. We were told that the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was 'killing his own people' and had to be stopped. The deaths of over 200 people in Libya was, according to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 'unacceptable'. But the Ukrainian government is killing its own people today, and despite more than 200 people being killed (as of 10th July the number of civilian deaths was 478, including seven children), western leaders do not say that the Ukrainian leader, Petro Poroshenko, has to be stopped, or that the bloodshed is 'unacceptable' and nor are there any calls for a 'no-fly zone' to be imposed. Why is it acceptable for the Ukrainian government to launch a military offensive, including air strikes against its own people, but unacceptable for the Libyan government in 2011 to do likewise? I'm confused. Can anyone help me?

Comment: Check out another excellent 'I'm confused' article from Neil Clark here:

Occupation of Government building was a sign of democracy in January but a sign of terrorism in April! I'm confused, can anyone help me?

Read More...
Star of David

Best of the Web: London & Oslo: Thousands protest against the psychopathic war machine of Israel


RT
Sat, 12 Jul 2014 01:53 UTC
jew palestine flag
© Reuters/Neil HallSays it all really. Judaism is just a cover used by the psychos in Tel Aviv to satisfy their murderous impulses.
Thousands have turned out in London and Oslo to call for an end to Israeli strikes in Gaza. The event organizers say Palestinians are facing "a horrific escalation of racism and violence" at the hands of the IDF.

The British capital saw the largest turnout with thousands of protesters rallying outside the Israeli Embassy on Friday. Demonstrators flooded the streets around the building waving placards that read "Gaza: End the Siege" and "Freedom for Palestine."

Comment: That there is even any debate or "doubt" about the immorality and illegality of this outright genocide is just farcical, and is a clear sign of how blind the world has become. Israel is a rabid dog with an insatiable bloodlust, and in an ideal world would be treated like one. If you think those words are harsh or offensive, then it just shows how successful the Israeli propaganda campaign has been.

Read More...